Ne'er Saw True Beauty Till This Night
by OurLadyGrem
Summary: Loosely based off scenes in Romeo and Juliet, this short story portrays the chaotic account of Cosmo at a party at Cupid's, and the moments leading up to the first time he saw Wanda.


**Title: **Ne'er Saw True Beauty Till This Night

**Disclaimer: **I don't own this show.

**AN: **I smoked a blunt just before watching the film, and I had never felt so confused and sad over one film in my life. Then I read the play and remembered why Shakespeare is considered to be the best of the best. So, apologies to Shakespeare and Baz Luhrmann, and early Merry Christmas wishes to all.

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><p>Loosely based off scenes in Romeo + Juliet, this short story portrays the chaotic account of Cosmo at a party at Cupid's, and the moments leading up to the first time he saw Wanda.<p>

Rated T for mature themes and drug references.

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><p><em>[Click]<em>

_["Talk Show Host" – Radiohead plays]_

"Act One, Scene Five..."

No one could deny it. Cupid threw the wildest party yet.

Fairy World was under siege by the creatures of the underworld, taking the entire world by storm whether they wanted it or not. And Cupid had welcomed them all. He was determined to have the craziest, most untamed party the universe had ever seen, and he was on the brink of accomplishing just that. He had taken in anyone who was seen as an outsider and welcomed them into his home, lavishing them in extravagant costumes and masquerade masks dripping in jewels and precious stones. He dressed up the most savage creatures and gave the most fierce ones a bone so that they would comply. Then he'd shower the lame and the ludicrous in all means of splendour, all in the name of creating the most unforgettable night of anyone's lives.

And there was a strict rule for entering Cupid's special event; no one must look boring and plain. He proudly turned away anyone who didn't look the part. In fact, if anyone had entered the party wearing anything remotely close to everyday casual clothing, _they_ would've seemed like the outsiders in this outlandish festivity. And Cupid couldn't allow anyone not to have a good time, not at any of his famous get-togethers. He wouldn't be able to live it down.

He tried his best to provide everything he could think of to please every one of his attendant's needs, even if it meant dipping into the most _taboo_ essential party supplies. In the darkest parts of Cupid's rooms in the back of his mansion, there were prostitutes of every nature. In the cages hanging from his high ceilings, there were the strangest of all go-go dancers, dancing in no clothes at all. And finally, there were loyal servants of Cupid's, tiny sprites in diapers, circling every part of the dance floor and offering the attendants with every kind of drug you could think of.

But there was one form of drug that everyone was hankering to get their hands on at Cupid's party that night. He whispered...

"She comes in shape no bigger than an agate stone..."

Cupid had described his best selling product yet. He, being an expert on love in all shapes and sizes, had extracted the purest form of love into a small white pill, creating the most energizing hallucinogen known to man.

Ecstasy.

He called it Queen Mab, and it created the illusion of the very act of falling in love itself.

Falling in love, MDMA, what was the difference? Cupid described the effects of the drug close to the feeling of love very well. They both control your moods and magnify your sense of emotional closeness. You'd fall to your knees as victims to the manipulating feelings that they'd both bring.

"This is she..."

He described the drug experience as if you were living in a dream about love. It would be a bitter dream that brings you so close to madness that you'll feel as if there was no way of waking up, yet it'll bring you so much happiness and pure joy that the idea of plummeting back to reality would seem like a cruel conclusion.

"This is she!"

He would scream to the Heavens after consumption.

Hateful Cupid... torn between his passion for making others happy, making them fall in love and live contented lives with each other, yet not feeling an inch of what they were experiencing himself. Cupid had not fallen in love. He had seen it so many times, manipulated it a thousand times over, and yet he had no idea what it meant to love another person.

"Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate, O anything of nothing first created!" Cosmo had agreed with Cupid, also seeing love as a cruel twist of fate that caused nothing but destruction and chaos.

Cosmo.

Love was something Cupid's most dear friend had also longed to feel.

O Cosmo.

A poor man who hadn't wished for anything more than love. It wasn't as if he was neglected of love all of his life or that he had been drained of it, far from that. He had loved his close family deeply, he spread his love for his friends all around, and he thought he had fallen in love once or twice. But nothing came close to what Cupid's drugs had made him feel.

However, it wasn't real. It was all a cruel illusion that he had ached for with all of his being. He let himself play along with it as he felt it was the closest he had ever been to this feeling.

So that night, he attended Cupid's party in hopes that it would pull him out of his rut. He had been depressed for so long now, feeling nothing but unrequited love for a hallucinogen that creates false fantasises of intense emotions. He'd hole himself up in his room at Mama Cosma's place, drawing his curtains over the sunlight as he fell victim to the welcoming arms of darkened loneliness. It was as if his own solitary company was his only friend, a friend who would consistently remind him that he was ultimately going to be alone, starved of the love he yearned for with all of his being. Days drew to nights, and nights transitioned to days...

"Ay me! sad hours seem long." He'd lament to himself.

So Cupid convinced him to attend his party to avoid another isolated night by himself. Cosmo was sceptical after Cupid had told him that he'd be surrounded by beautiful women all night, and he was bound to meet someone amongst all of the creatures of the night that he would grow accustomed to. Although Cosmo was bitter at the prospect, he agreed to come along despite his cynical perspective on the entire thing.

Cosmo wondered if he only agreed to go because of the abundance of Queen Mab that was bound to be there. That spiteful drug that cursed him day and night. How he dragged his feet when he donned a knight costume, complete with a blackened masquerade mask to darken his glowing green eyes. Cupid was very displeased by his lack of effort in his choice of eccentric clothing, but sympathised with him after knowing of Cosmo's condition. After all, Cupid knew what it was like to long for love in its entirety.

So Cosmo looked nothing more than a green haired masked knight, with the weight of the world on his shoulders as he trudged towards the party. But just before he could enter Cupid's mansion to meet up with him, he was pulled over to the side by a group of familiar, yet bizarre looking, people.

One of the larger men pulled up his red mask. It was Jorgen Von Strangle, grinning widely to him whilst hiding behind his disguise to avoid any detection. No doubt he was sneaking off work to attend what would be no doubt one of the best parties in centuries, he simply couldn't pass up the chance to attend no matter what his duties were that night. Jorgen trusted Cosmo with his secret, as he was one of his dear friends, and as a dear friend he knew of Cosmo's plight as well. In fact, anyone could see how solemn Cosmo looked that night.

Jorgen aimed to change that immediately.

He held up his large fist, stretching out a long fingertip only inches away from Cosmo's face, and what lay on the end of his finger made Cosmo take in a hard gasp in surprise.

_[Click]_

There it was. A white pill, no smaller than his fingernail, with a tiny red heart imprinted on the base as if it were mocking him. Cosmo knew he shouldn't, it only brought him misery and contempt afterwards, but he yearned to feel that intense sensation that it brought down upon him. He knew it was all fake, it was all a play, but he couldn't ignore the way he almost hungered for it.

It was, to him, as if he was reaching out towards the feeling, and only his fingertips had dipped into the fraction of what he could describe as love.

Jorgen held the small pill over his mouth, dangling it above his head as if to tease him. He only had to flick it away from him, and all this torturous temptation could be over in a moment.

But Cosmo slowly parted his lips, letting his tongue creep out unwillingly as Jorgen broke his fingers away to let the pill fall down Cosmo's tongue. He squeezed his eyes tight, almost wincing at his lack of self-control over the situation, and Jorgen smirked. If it was only for a little while, let Cosmo be contented.

"Alas, that love, so gentle in his view, should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!" Jorgen's final words to him were, before Cosmo's mind was clouded with harsh thoughts and sounds running through his mind.

The air felt heavy around him, the sounds of people and music were muffled as if a stereo had barely been silenced, and his eyes shot open. Jorgen had already pulled him into the great hall of Cupid's abode, and he was surrounded by the sparkling decorations, the glittering clothing of the people's masquerade costumes, and the intimidating gleaming ray of light that shone down from the top of the staircase. Cosmo looked up, only to be blinded for a moment from the fierce glint that shot into his eyes, and he could barely believe the sight of it all.

There stood a man dressed all in white. His traditional diaper was replaced with a mini-skirt, barely covering his thighs and leaving nothing left to the imagination. He sported a diamond coated bra, twinkling elegantly as it showered over his large white wings. He was covered in diamonds from head to toe, on his high heels, on his skirt and bra, on his wings and finally on the curls of his large white wig, styled as big as an afro could get.

But it wasn't as large as the smile on his lipstick-coated lips. Cosmo had to double take.

Cupid.

_Your drugs are quick._

_[Click]_

_["Young Hearts" – Kym Mazelle plays]_

The crowd roared as Cupid revealed himself to his public. He threw his hands up into the air as to bait them on, and their cheers were growing louder and louder. Cosmo couldn't bear the hard thumping going on in his ears from all the sounds hitting him at once.

Cupid sang along to the song muffled in the background against the horrendous cheering layering on top of it. He was having a great time, feeling the energy of his guests surround him. It filled him with total euphoria. He danced with all of this energy granted to him by his audience. He wasn't afraid to ham it up by kicking his legs high up into the air, performing a graceful can-can routine and flashing the crowd below him an eyeful of what lay underneath his short skirt.

He laughed as he bounded towards the crowd, letting himself fall into their open arms and then flying back up the stairs as if to tease them towards him into a group dance.

The energy of the entire room was phenomenal. Everyone was on their feet and dancing, singing, screaming at the top of their lungs as they were all having the time of their lives. It was a time to finally be themselves, free of any prejudice or worries, free to get absolutely weird, and a time to completely let loose and let the high energy of the crowd sweep over them in abundance. It was breath-taking, it was wild!

Yet Cosmo felt as if he was being backed into a corner. There were too many people here, there was too much noise bouncing from each corner of the room, and there was so much movement. He found himself feeling isolated in the middle of the crowd, being pushed along the dance floor by highly stimulated guests until he found himself knocked to the floor at the bottom of the stairs.

After seeing Cosmo fall to his knees, Cupid rushed down the stairs and clapped his hands over Cosmo's face, holding his head up towards him and smiled with a large toothy grin. But soon, his smile faded once he noticed how freaked Cosmo appeared to be. His eyes were watery and his whole body was shaking. These weren't good signs, he noticed, and he couldn't let a single soul not have a good time at his party.

Immediately, Cupid called for Jorgen over the immense noise of the crowd. He was thankfully nearby and easy for Cupid to get his attention. Once Jorgen joined them by his side, Cupid passed Cosmo's seemingly lifeless body into his arms and instructed him to take him some place quiet. Jorgen understood, nodding towards him authoritatively, and wrapped his large hand around Cosmo's arm. He was so enormous next to him, he found it extremely difficult to handle Cosmo with extreme care at that moment. Cosmo looked so dizzy and so out of it, he wasn't sure if it was really Jorgen's tight grip on him that was doing it or the dizzying effects of the drugs that he took.

_[Music dies down]_

They finally reached to a part of Cupid's mansion that had barely any life or any noise around it. Jorgen was thankful that he found a men's bathroom there, mostly because he could get Cosmo away from any disturbances, but also partly because he was bursting for a piss.

As Jorgen attended to his business, Cosmo was left to plunge his head in a sink. Once his head had impacted into the cold water, he felt himself immediately liven up and his senses finally came back to him. All he had to do now was find the strength to lift his face back out of the water.

Any moment now.

Any moment he would forget the disappointing and frightful experience he just had, getting no where near the intense sensation of love he'd usually feel after consuming Cupid's stimulants. Any moment he'd ascend his body out of his potential watery grave, into the forced reality that made him believe it was no longer possible for him to feel anywhere near that same false happiness he got from in-taking the ecstasy.

Any... moment... now...

Finally, it came. With a loud gasp for air, he emerged from the water as it dripped down his face and off the strands of his darkened green hair. He was frustrated, disappointed, completely at a loss. He felt the mask on his face was suffocating him, as if it represented the false mask he wore everyday to cover up his shame, and finally he grabbed it off his face. He threw it with disgust into the water, stumbling and backing away from it and sighed heavily.

He hated this. He felt he was a total lost cause, stripped of the only thing he had wished for out of everything in his life. He wanted to love and be loved in return, nothing more and nothing less. It puzzled him why he only wanted this in his life, yet it made so much sense to him. He knew it would make him happy, that life would have so much more meaning if it meant he'd have so much love in it. For what is life without love, falling in love and living for love?

But as Cosmo fell depleted against the basin, feeling completely defeated and solemn in a lonely bathroom. He knew that he'd never get to experience this and it was foolish of him to even think that a drug would even make him feel anything close to love.

_[Click...]_

Cosmo moved away from the basin, turning his head idly towards the shimmering blue aquarium incorporated within the wall opposite him. It oddly caught his interest for a moment, though he wasn't compelled to ask why. The water inside the tank was clear, he inspected as he slowly ventured towards it, and it was almost peaceful with beautiful colourful fish swimming along the soft currents and reflecting light shades of blue and green softly towards him.

Yet, curiously, there were also faint tints of pink, lightly tingeing the bed of the tank...

_[Click...]_

Cosmo squinted, wondering where the source of this pleasant looking colour was coming from, as the fish were very far from it. His eyes wandered over the bed of the tank, curiously looking over the tiny blue grains of sand that covered the ground, finding nothing that could possibly be highlighting them so brightly with shades of pink that he could find.

Then, just as he was wondering why he felt so drawn to this odd detail in the first place, and just as he was almost about to lose all hope, his eyes locked on to something new. Something pink, something beautiful.

He locked on to a pair of gentle pink eyes, warmly gazing back at him.

_[Click]_

_["I'm Kissing You" – Des'ree plays]_

Cosmo's head shot up. His eyes were wide, as wide as they could go, and his gaze was met with those same pair of eyes he had spotted across the way. She had done the same by shooting up to meet his curious stare.

And he could see her completely now.

She was... were there even any words?

Wanda. She was simply Wanda.

Her eyes were a bright luminescent shade of pink, curiously shooting a look back at him with the same sense of wonder he was gazing at her. She had her rose coloured lips parted, as if she was stunned into silence as he had been. Soft strands of pink hair swept over her hairline and curled down her back, framing her baby-shaped face as if her presence had brightened up the fish tank with mellow tints of pink.

But the two had found themselves separated by the tank. Her reflection was muddled through the water, gently contorting her face and magnifying her presence there. Cosmo could have sworn he could've reached out and touched her.

And as if she could hear him, she turned away for a moment shyly. Cosmo took a sharp intake of breath, wondering if she did actually hear him, but her head moved back to him slowly, shooting her gaze back to his. She was curious, just as he was.

Cosmo's face was still dripping wet from the cold water he had dunked his head in, and he hadn't even noticed. He could only take note of the way she'd bashfully look towards him with a very small smile pulling on her lips. It was small, barely noticeable at all, but Cosmo saw it. He felt as if he should be grinning in return, but it was as if he was floored by how beautiful he found this barely formed smile of hers.

Cosmo stepped to the side, slowly moving further down the tank as if he could somehow get a better look of her further down the way. To his slight surprise, Wanda had stepped to the side as well, as if she was mirroring his actions exactly. It was almost as if they were gazing at each other with childish wonder, discovering something beautiful for the very first time and experiencing it entirely. As they moved over the tank, their eyes hadn't moved an inch away from each other. They were carefully placed on the reflection of each other through the thick glass panes, tinted over the blue water with careless fish occasionally blocking out their view.

Then, as if to go along with this feeling of being a child once again, Cosmo stepped back suddenly, catching Wanda off guard. He was teasing her, as if to challenge her to follow his movements now. With an arched eyebrow, she stepped back as well, keeping her head locked on the same level as his.

Cosmo finally found himself grinning. The way she would let her emotions show only slightly on her face, as if to hold her feelings back from showing, was interesting to him. She lifted an eyebrow at him as if to bait him on, and he gladly played along.

Again, he moved himself back and forth, careful not to lose sight of her and yet playing with her reflection as if he felt he had aged backwards several decades. Finally, when Wanda couldn't keep up with this game anymore, she gave up and let herself go. Her lips were pulled up into a more noticeable smile, as she was trying her best to hold herself from laughing out loud.

Cosmo's heart felt as if it couldn't go any faster.

Without even realising it, he found himself press his face against the glass, as if he wanted to lean forward and kiss her slightly grinning lips, yet he forgot they were so plainly separated by a large tank in between them. Wanda turned her head and bit her bottom lip, keeping herself from bursting into laughter from seeing this, and turned back with another small grin when she saw he hadn't moved back from the tank at all. He had pressed his nose against the glass, his eyes sparkling with playful intent and his boyish grin going as wide as it could go.

For a moment, she could only stare at him. Her expression softened with an unfamiliar feeling residing within her. As Cosmo saw this, he slowly lifted his head from the glass pane for a moment, placing his hand almost longingly against the tank. His fingers ran down the cold glass, wishing that it wasn't there in between them, and his playful grin fell. Instead, his eyes had also softened and lowered down to Wanda's lips, parted as his were.

Wanda's reflection seemed so near to him. Cosmo looked as if he was only a few inches away from her. If only that fish tank weren't there, if only it didn't create the illusion that they were really standing right in front of each other, when they were actually so far apart.

Wanda moved her head closer to the glass pane, feeling drawn towards him somehow, and feeling as if the glass wasn't there at all. He was so close to her, she could almost touch the hand he had placed against the tank, and he looked at her with so much longing.

Cosmo inched his head down a little further, as if his lips were hovering so close to hers...

"Madam! Your mother calls!"

Wanda's sister had interrupted her all of a sudden, grabbing at her arm to pull her away from him.

Wanda looked back at Cosmo, confused for a moment before realising that she was being taken away by her intrusive sister. Cosmo hurried down the side of the tank to follow after her, watching her head turn towards him as if it would be the very last time he saw her.

Before she was pulled completely away from his view, Wanda looked back to him finally. She stopped in her tracks, as if to halt herself and shoot him one last wide smile to him before disappearing from his sight. Unbeknownst to her that if she hadn't made that last kind gesture to him, Cosmo may not have stumbled forward in a hurry, caught off guard by how stunning that last smile to him was. He leant on the fish tank, pushing himself forward over the water to squint his eyes at the distance ahead.

Finally, it came to him. The other side of the room was the women's bathroom. She was only next door!

Cosmo almost pounced on his toes towards the door, falling over his feet as he went, and threw himself through the exit. His eyes darted around the hallway, looking every which way there was before finally seeing the trail of a white dress turn the corner up on the far right. As soon as he saw this, he bounded off towards it, unable to find a voice in his throat to call after her as he hurried onwards. As he reached the corner, he grabbed on to the side to swivel himself around as fast as he could and looked on ahead. Finally, he spotted the back of her figure in the distance being pulled up ahead by her blonde sister. Cosmo daren't look away from it in fear that he'd lose sight of her completely.

Blonda, Wanda's sister who had captured her away, finally lead her quickly on to the dance floor just ahead. They met up with a rather handsome looking gentleman, dressed rather oddly in an astronaut costume. It was very misplaced next to Wanda, who had dressed in an elegant white dress over her elongated angel wings. Her crown had been replaced with a small, glowering halo that highlighted her hair with softened shades of gold and showered her figure in a gentle light that irradiated from it.

The gentleman named Juandissimo took Wanda's hands into his, pulling her towards him with confidence as he smirked. He lifted his head into the air proudly, flicking his black ponytail over his shoulder.

"Will you now deny to dance?" He asked her, his voice as smooth as silk as he raised an eyebrow to her.

Wanda glanced over to her sister and her family who were not too far away from them, and she knew that they had planned this. They were very fond of Juandissimo, and they were planning on Wanda even marrying him one day. He seemed to have the whole package for her, they concluded that she'd be a fool to decline his offer. What they hadn't counted on was Wanda's feelings for him, which were, to put it simply, non-existent.

But she knew her family was keeping a close eye on her, and one dance wouldn't exactly hurt anyone's feelings. So before she could even open her mouth to accept his wishes, she was pulled forward by him towards the empty part of the dance floor.

Cosmo bounded forward and finally caught sight of her from a distance. He sat on the sidelines, watching her take the hand of this new interloper, and felt completely hopeless next to him. However, he couldn't quite find it within himself to focus entirely on Juandissimo, as his attention was drawn entirely on the beautiful girl he took the hands of.

Cosmo watched from a distance, finding it difficult to tear his eyes away from her for even a moment, and breathed unsteadily at the sight of her. Wanda was stepping awkwardly against Juandissimo, as they both seemed to be having a hard time with this dancing lark. At least Juandissimo was trying his best to keep up and impress her with his footwork. Wanda seemed to be distracted by something else. Although she acted as if she was interested in Juandissimo's poor attempts at thrilling her, her eyes kept flicking up towards Cosmo's direction. It was like she was trying to tell him that he was still in her thoughts, and they were still staring at each other through the glass panes of the fish tank.

As Wanda danced with Juandissimo rather squarely around the dance floor, Cosmo moved around the sidelines to keep his gaze directly on her. He couldn't let himself be taken away from her. Not even as she had her hands in the arms in another man, she was still with Cosmo by the way that she looked at him.

She turned gracefully in Juandissimo's grasp, feeling confident with the way that she moved, yet she was completely isolated away from him. Even so, Wanda appeared to be having a good time by dancing with him anyway. She smiled contentedly, glancing occasionally towards Cosmo with a teasing glint in her eyes, and saved all her playful grins whenever she could take up the chance to gaze back at him.

Cosmo could only watch her, feeling the exact same way as her. He was hers now, he realised that much, and for now he acted as her spectator. Carefully watching her from a distance, locking her gaze with hers occasionally, and smiling back at her whenever he could. It was the only way of communicating he found useful at that moment, and he didn't mind one bit.

He loved how confident she was as she danced, the way her expressions would soften when she smiled towards him, and definitely how she laughed when Juandissimo awkwardly stepped the wrong way. She'd bite her lip to keep a hearty laugh within her, acting with self-control and grace, yet the laugh lines beside her eyes suggested that she usually had a wild sense of humour. When she felt herself slipping and laughing out loud, she'd barely cover her smile with her hand and turn herself away from Juandissimo to compose herself. Then she'd shoot a short glance towards Cosmo, and she'd sigh contentedly before turning elegantly on her feet back to Juandissimo, dancing alongside him once more.

Cosmo could swear that whenever she paid attention to her companion, she'd have all the self-confidence in the world. Yet when her eyes met up with Cosmo's, she'd reside within herself and her face would fill with colour, lowering her head bashfully with a small smile widening on her face.

"Did my heart love till now?" Cosmo whispered to himself as he continued to watch her, realising now what this unbelievable feeling residing in his heart was, "Forswear it, sight. For I never saw true beauty till this night."

Wanda looked over to him as he said this, unable to hear his observations but feeling as if she could relate entirely.

Then she'd be interrupted by one of Juandissimo's attempts to impress her, bringing her hand up to his lips and smirking with one of his trademark smiles. Wanda couldn't help but laugh out loud at this, shooting a hand over her uncontrollable smile as she glanced unbelievably over to Cosmo. He laughed in return, enjoying how much she was having fun with this, noticing how she'd press her lips together to stop herself from laughing when Juandissimo directed her arm around his shoulders. Her eyes widened towards Cosmo incredulously, slightly shaking her head at this attempt to get even closer to her, and Cosmo could only playfully smile at her.

She looked at him as if her eyes were saying 'help me', and Cosmo grinned at her as if to reply 'you're on your own'.

It was unbelievable how much fun they were both making out of this, with Juandissimo unknowingly in the middle of it all.

Then finally, it was as if the playfulness of it all began to subside, as their gazes began to soften towards each other as the music in the faded into the background.

_[Click]_

Juandissimo finally let go of her hands, turning towards the stage ahead of them and applauded the magnificent singer. Wanda hadn't even noticed that there was even music playing, let alone noticed that it had just stopped. Nevertheless, she remained at his side, impulsively clapping alongside him, and stepped a little backwards away from him. She created a small distance away from him, so she wouldn't arouse any suspicion, and glanced over her shoulders to see Cosmo a little farther behind her.

Her head snapped forward as she noticed him move towards her, and her entire figure froze. For a moment, her eyes were wide as she was unsure of what to do or what to think. She could only feel the excitement take a tight grip on her, and she was stiffened on the spot.

Cosmo casually moved to a pillar a little behind her, cautiously laying his back against it as his gaze burned the back of her head. She could definitely feel it, as her eyes darted around nervously finding it difficult to move any other muscle in her body.

Suddenly, she felt fingers gently take hold of her hand from behind her.

She gasped quickly, taken by surprise by how bold Cosmo had been by leaning forward and taking her hand into his. Wanda resisted the urge to jump, and turned immediately towards him to lock her eyes into his gaze. She felt her heart within her throat and her breath being caught within it, finding herself unable to say a word to him.

Cosmo felt this was unnecessary, as he gently pulled her towards him so that she was backed up against the other side of the pillar. She smiled incredulously, finding it amusing how this bold stranger was so intent on getting her attention, yet handling her with so much care as she was thrust near him. She also grinned at the fact that he had hidden himself on the other side of the pillar, unable to face her just yet even as he was holding on to her hand, unwilling to let go of her yet.

He took a deep breath from behind her, building up the courage to finally face her and took a moment for all the colour to rush away from his face.

One more deep breath... one more...

He found the courage by the touch of her hand, by the image of her beautiful smile fresh in his mind, he finally turned his head towards her, and uttered...

"If I profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine, the gentle sin is this..."

He whispered to her amusement. It was true that he felt completely unworthy to even hold her hand, the hand of the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen, yet his playful manner teased the idea of making it up for her in the best way he knew how. But before moving onward to boldly propose the idea to her, he took one more breath of courage and shakily cleared his throat before leaning down beside her, catching her surprised gaze as he brought her hand closer to him,

"My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss..."

Before he could shyly press his lips against her hand, Wanda slipped herself away from him quickly to interrupt him. She took his arms gently to bring him away from unwanted eyes, and looked at him tenderly.

"Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, which mannerly devotion shows in this," she said softly, feeling incredibly embarrassed by how highly he thought of her next to himself, and she felt she couldn't bare the fact that he made himself out to be inferior. He had handled her so calmly and so gently, he was hardly doing any justice to himself, "For saints have hands that pilgrim's hands do touch, and palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss."

Cosmo felt himself smile by how humble she treated him, finding himself drawn to how sweet she seemed. And after she teased the idea that pilgrims' kiss was more or less the same as holding the hands of saints, Cosmo leaned in closer to her to follow up with an even more daring concept.

"Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?" He told her softly, leaning in so close that their lips were only inches away from each other.

Wanda laughed aloud as she turned her head away from him, finding it astonishing how much Cosmo seemed to be at her mercy.

"Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer." She urged as she rolled her eyes to him, her smile never fading.

"O, then, dear saint," he quipped at her with a mischievous grin, "let lips do what hands do. They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair."

Wanda froze as he continued to move close to her, backing them both against the darkest part of the dance hall. She felt her heart almost stop when she recalled over and over what he had so bravely told her. He was praying for her to kiss him.

She shook her head, unwilling to give in to his game just yet, and her playful grin returned, slightly shaking as she was falling victim to his charming words. If she was considered to be this pilgrim's saint, then she light-heartedly went along with the role.

"Saints do not move," she replied with her head raised high, planting her feet firmly into the ground, "though grant for prayers' sake."

Cosmo saw through her stubbornness as she continuously held on to his arms, despite her claims that she wouldn't shift an inch, and he fearlessly took this chance to gently place his hand carefully over her cheekbone. Wanda drew breath as if it were her last as she felt this contact, and felt no reason now to move away from him at all.

"Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take..."

Wanda felt her eyes begin to close the more she felt his fingers move over her warm cheeks. As Cosmo leaned in closer to her, his eyes moving down to her parted lips, he recklessly hovered near her for a moment. He swallowed one more hard gulp, feeling his courage waning for a second, before realising that this was the moment he had always pined for.

This girl in front of him with her delicate arms over his, this beautiful and funny girl, so accepting and kind, was welcoming him entirely as if they had known each other for over ten thousand years.

The feeling she gave him was no way close to all the drugs he ever took, to all the stories he had heard about love, and finally he felt his search for meaning was complete. With this girl in his arms, he felt victorious. Anything was within his grasp now, nothing was impossible or hard to reach. Though life had dealt him a series of bad hands, he finally felt he had held on long enough to experience his winnings. He'd fallen in love, and he was being loved in return. All that he wanted, he finally got.

All he had to do to seal this fate now was to press his lips against hers, like a silent agreement that this was destiny...

"Wanda!"

Blonda and Juandissimo were calling from a distance, breaking Wanda immediately away from Cosmo's grasp. They looked at each other desperately, neither of them wanting to be away from each other just yet, and they both frantically looked around for any sign of an exit.

Suddenly, the darkened wall they had hid themselves away in broke apart, revealing to them that it was an elevator. They took this as a sign and ran inside. They both held their breaths as the doors closed together slowly, finally shutting out the rest of the unwanted world.

Then, before Wanda could react, Cosmo had pushed himself towards her and finally held his lips against hers into a slow, shy kiss.

Wanda was frozen, as saints should be, as her pilgrim held her there with gentle force. She closed her eyes as she gave into him, her hands pressed against the metal breastplate of his armour, and felt herself being seized in his grasp. The kiss was short but felt as if years had gone by between them both, as they broke apart breathlessly to look back into each other's widened eyes. This entire situation seemed beyond their imagination, as if this really was a bittersweet dream that Cupid had described exactly. Cosmo held on to her tight, unwilling to let that be a possibility... if this really was just some wonderful hallucination.

But she looked real, and most certainly felt real within his arms, smiling sweetly towards him as she looked contented with their shared kiss. He grinned at her, so happy to have found someone like her, and told her quietly,

"Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged."

She laughed aloud, more audibly this time, as he still seemed to go along with this saint-pilgrim roleplay of theirs.

"Then have my lips the sin that they have took." She said sarcastically with an arched eyebrow, wondering if this 'sin' of his had really been passed on to her through their kiss.

"Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged!" He grinned when she curiously brushed her fingers over her own lips. Then he grew insanely jealous, wishing that those fingers were his own...

"Give me my sin again..."

He brought her to him once more, kissing her more bravely this time as she slid her hands over his arms and over his neck, eventually brushing slightly over his jawline as her eyes closed to feel him against her again.

Cosmo couldn't believe what he was feeling with her, and how she seemed a lot more confident around him than earlier. It brought him more courage as he gently held her waist and pulled her against him, moving his lips gently at first before he kissed her more passionately. He felt determined to show her just how much of an effect she had on him. Wanda could barely keep up, feeling herself falling under his touch, that she broke herself away to take sharp breaths of air as if she had none left in her lungs.

"You kiss by the book." She said breathlessly, making him smile proudly in return.

Unwilling to let her go just yet, Cosmo held her close to him as he brought his lips to her blushing cheek, warm with colour and flushed with love.

Love.

Finally, Cosmo had found love, he contentedly thought to himself. As he buried his hand in her pink curls, softly brushing his fingertips down the side of her neck, she felt herself almost fall over from how weak he made her feel. He was equally surprised by how she affected him in the same way, but he found it easier to follow what his heart wanted, and kept her close to him in his caged arms. He slowly moved his lips over her cheek, barely even touching her in fear that he wouldn't do justice for her if he desecrated her fair skin any further. But she surprised him when she quickly turned her head, meeting her lips on his as if it were the first time all over again.

She leant her head back, smiling into the kiss as she felt so much pleasure from it, amused with herself by how much influence this had on her senses. Neither of them knew it would be anything close to this, but they didn't waste any time wondering how it got to this, and simply embraced each other's comforting presence within their arms.

_[Click]_

Suddenly, the elevator doors sprung open, and Blonda stood in the doorway with her eyes shooting wide at the scene. Cosmo and Wanda immediately broke apart from each other, pressing their lips together to hide their laughter after seeing Blonda's expression. She was, however, not amused in the slightest.

"Madam," Blonda seethed as she took Wanda's arm in her hand forcedly, "your mother craves a word with you."

_[Click]_

_["Everybody's Free" – Quindon Tarver plays]_

And just like that, she was ripped away from Cosmo's arms in a blink of an eye. Wanda looked back at him to see him gaze longingly to her, stumbling forward towards her as he watched them bound through the crowds of people in their way.

He kept his eyes on her, intensely keeping her within his sight so that he could follow her to the end of the universe, if it came to it. He barrelled through groups of people, keeping his head over the waves of the crowd and saw Wanda looking back, shooting him her carefree smile she ensnared him with.

However, that last smile she had startled him. It was a sad, longing smile as if she knew all this time that this was the inevitable outcome. She was distraught, horror-stricken by the idea of it all, yet she hid her true feelings behind a cheery smile, because that's how she was.

But Cosmo _refused_ to give up. Love had made him a madman.

Cosmo tried his absolute best to follow where she was heading, shuffling awkwardly through the drunken, drugged up party goers scattered everywhere in Cosmo's path. He was growing desperate as her white dress grew blurry amongst the congregation of people, erratically moving and dancing in the way and blocking his view. He pushed himself through, becoming increasingly impatient and fearful of what this could mean, until...

She was gone...

Wanda was nowhere. She wasn't anywhere to be found.

Amongst the masses of busying dancers, there was no sight of the girl that captured Cosmo's heart that night.

He searched throughout the night, asking everyone he could find if they had seen her and described her the best way that he could, but he always came up short. It became an entire night of desperately searching every inch of Cupid's house, daring to enter even the most seediest of rooms, but it seemed that she left no clue to who she was or where she went. Even the people she was with had disappeared completely and no one knew who they were.

Eventually Cosmo found his friend Jorgen, and he begged him to help look for her. But Jorgen only informed him that Cosmo had only disappeared for a very short time, otherwise he was with Jorgen the entire time. Cosmo was confused, unsure of what he meant by this. He could've sworn that he was away from Jorgen for a very long while. He was completely scatter-brained, unable to put the puzzle pieces together as something wasn't quite right here.

Then, a bombshell...

Jorgen told him calmly that all this time he suspected Cosmo of perhaps hallucinating the entire occurrence.

Wanda was never there. She was never real.

The drugs, the heartless drug had driven Cosmo to hallucination, creating Wanda as a product for the perfect fantasy. Cosmo had finally plummeted back to reality, the harsh reality that he was still painfully alone.

Cosmo felt as if he couldn't breathe. His heart had practically been torn out of his chest, and all that was left was a painful void within him.

The possibility of all this being true to him had shattered his entire world. He wanted to shut out what Jorgen had told him, wanted to rewind time so that he could relive in those few moments he spent with Wanda for the rest of his days, even if it was some fantasy he created within his mind.

But he couldn't.

It was a dream, brought sadistically to an end on the comedown, and Cosmo was once again abandoned of any chance for love in his life.

He was brought down to his knees in defeat and broke down in front of Jorgen. He hung his head in despair, silently sobbing to himself as he grabbed hold of Jorgen's clothes, hoping that he'd take this as an indication that he had to get out of here.

Jorgen sorrowfully lifted Cosmo off the ground with his head turned towards the exit, unable to look at Cosmo's tormented expression. Jorgen held on to Cosmo by wrapping an arm over his shoulders, holding him up the best that he could. But it was hopeless, Cosmo was almost limp in his grasp. His head was leant to the side, completely giving up any attempt to hold himself upright.

The wind was completely knocked out of his sails, and there was a large void forming within his chest. The love that he felt that night was quickly replaced with crushing pain and hopelessness.

If this really was all an hallucination, if this was all a cruel illusion his own mind had created, why then did he long to feel it once again with all of his being?

And as they were headed for the exit, as Jorgen pulled him forward and acted as his loyal guide, Cosmo halted him quickly with a yell. Jorgen almost stumbled forward as he quickly looked to the side of him, asking what had stopped Cosmo in his tracks.

Cosmo's face was frozen. His gaze was stiffened as he looked above them at the balcony above the entrance.

Wanda.

There she was...

And there... she went.

She faded away into thin air as quick as she came.

Another illusion, Cosmo concluded in pain. His mind was playing tricks on him. He wanted for her so much that he began to see things. He saw her in the face of strangers, he saw her smile on the lips of anyone he'd set his eyes on.

The effects of Queen Mab was relentless, Cosmo found despairingly.

Jorgen sighed in sympathy, holding on to him supportively as he continued on towards the exit. He'll get him out of here and get him back to his room safely, he was determined to make it up to him. Jorgen was the one that fed him that vicious white pill, he felt it was the least he could do.

But Cosmo couldn't endure this anymore. He kept his head down to avoid looking around, avoiding all eye contact with anyone he could find, and evaded anyone who may remotely resembled Wanda in any shape or form. His mind was muddled and clouded with so many confusing thoughts and painful memories and emotions.

Was she even real? Was she truly just an illusion? Was he never going to meet her again? Or was this really just some elaborate fantasy he had created for himself, brought on by his burning desire to feel love for the first time?

Whatever it was, he knew that there would be nothing in the entire universe that could compare to what he experienced that night. He felt so desperately within him that what he felt truly was real, and that Wanda wasn't just some concept he had created to fill the lonely need in his aching heart.

But no matter how much he wanted it to be true, no matter how much he wanted to search for her for the rest of his life, he knew that the truth would only kill him.

Love had made him a madman, and the only faint shred of sanity left within him was the faint hope that someday Wanda will appear to him again.

As sad hours went by and time progressed onwards, the image of Wanda faded in his mind, and the only image of her that remained was her muddled reflection, gazing back at him through the blue tinted glass of a fish tank.

...

_[Click]_

Cupid took out the cassette tape and inspected it within his fingers. With a heavy sigh and a slow shake of his head, he turned and said simply,

"A glooming peace this morning with it brings;

The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head:

Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;

Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:

For never was a story of more woe

Than this of Wanda and her Cosmo."


End file.
